Generally, repair of potholes is done by using jack hammers to loosen the damaged road surface allowing the loose material to be removed. Typically, a shallow saucer-like depression with fractured asphalt around the edges remains. This depression is then filled with fresh asphalt and tamped in place. Whenever a vehicle travels across the repair, it further compresses the patch which results in the outer edges pressing against any unremoved fractured asphalt. This pressure causes the surrounding road surface to further fragment and the saucer-like shape of the repair causes the patch to pop-up out of the hole. Thus, with time, a typical pothole repair fails requiring further repair.
During resurfacing of road surfaces, additional asphalt or concrete is applied to the existing surface so that the new road surface is two to three inches higher than the pre-existing surface. If the road has been resurfaced several times, the road surface is scraped and removed and then a fresh application of asphalt or concrete is made. In either case, where the roadway contains manholes, it is necessary to remove the manhole castings to adjust the height of the manhole castings to the new surface of the roadway.
The Vertical Asphalt & Concrete Miller provides a means of rapidly removing all of the fractured road surface and cutting a deeper straight sided hole. When a vehicle travels across the patch placed into this deeper straight sided hole, the compression of the asphalt pushes into the vertical sides thus causing the patch to remain in place rather than popping out.
The Vertical Asphalt & Concrete Miller is mounted on construction equipment such as a back hoe in place of the normal bucket. This permits the construction equipment to be used for multiple tasks. For example, if a coring bit is attached to the Vertical Asphalt and Concrete Miller, it can be used to remove manhole castings. Prior to this, there have been various dedicated use machines such as trench excavators and manhole casting removing devices.